FILE PHOTO: Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke//File Photo

After the maintenance of Nord Stream 1, the gas supply through the German-Russian gas pipeline started again on Thursday morning. Gas is flowing again, a spokesman for Nord Stream AG told the German Press Agency. It will take some time before the full transport capacity is reached.

The spokesman said the gas was last announced at about the same level as before the maintenance, i.e. around 67 million cubic meters per day. That corresponds to about 40 percent utilization of the maximum capacity. However, the notified quantities can also change in the course of a day with a certain amount of advance notice.

According to the head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, this was already the case on Wednesday when other network operators had published figures. Müller wrote on Twitter in the evening that the Russian state-owned company Gazprom had renominated and reduced the amount previously registered for Thursday to around 30 percent capacity utilization. According to him, more had previously been promised.

It had previously been feared that after the ten-day maintenance, Moscow could completely allow the gas tap and thus further aggravate the energy crisis. After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the West imposed sanctions on Russia. Russia, in turn, had completely or partially stopped gas supplies to European countries.